| There are two important contributions from this project. The first contribution is a framework to direct information collection according to where reducing uncertainty may have the greatest benefit. The second contribution is an investigation into how stand structures, interest rates and institutional constraints may affect such benefits. The results show that benefits are diminished by a positive interest rate and increase as the sustained yield constraints are relaxed. The key result is that significant benefits from reducing uncertainty exist in all scenarios except mature forests with values discounted by a 6% interest rate. However, the Alberta forest industry operates on mainly mature land bases and faces interest rates of at least 6%. Since, within this framework, industry may not have incentive to invest in uncertainty reduction, there may be an argument to have more government responsibility for research and data collection. |
